About

James Barrood

James Barrood is among the primary leaders of the east coast's innovation ecosystem. Over the past 25 years he has supported the region’s entrepreneurial, innovation and technology communities.

James currently leads Innovation+, a curated global community of 10,000+ entrepreneurs and innovators. He serves as an advisor to startups, growth companies and higher ed institutions as well as TechAid, Tech Council Venture Fund and JumpStart Angel Network. In addition, he developed and oversees executive education programs focusing on AI.

James recently concluded five years as CEO of the regional trade association (NJ, NYC, PA), the NJ Tech Council (TechUnited), which is among the largest and most respected membership organizations of its kind nationwide with 1,000+ member companies. Prior to this, he led the top-ranked entrepreneurship and innovation center at Fairleigh Dickinson University for over 10 years.

Recognized as a Power 100 List leader and a Top 100 Influencer for the past few years, James frequently speaks at regional and global conferences and serves on several boards including Princeton's McCarter Theatre. In 2021, he gave a TEDx talk on how innovative immigrants are helping to save millions of people with the remarkably fast development of COVID vaccines and treatments. His latest TEDx talk focuses on startup ecosystems moving to the cloud and how community stakeholders are affected.

James hosts the 'A Few Things' podcast which shares insights from entrepreneurial and innovative leaders. He has published two books, Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Global Insights from 24 Leaders and Lessons from the Great Recession. He has written thought leadership articles for Entrepreneur, Business Insider, Grit Daily, Life Sciences Leader, Star-Ledger, ROI, NJBiz and other publications and has been widely quoted regionally and nationally and interviewed on TV (ABC, MSNBC, NJTV) and online.

He holds an MBA from Texas A&M University and a BA in Economics from Rutgers University.